Facebook is developing a separate application for smartphones that would allow users to voluntarily share their locations with their Friends and keep track of their Friends’ locations, Bloomberg reported late Monday. The app is set to be released in mid March, according to one of two unidentified sources familiar with the plans who leaked the news to Bloomberg.
Facebook already has a similar feature within its main Facebook app for iPhone and Android, available under the “Nearby” feature, which was updated in late 2012 to show areas where Friends have “checked-in” on Facebook. It’s unclear how Facebook’s new feature would be differentiated from the “Nearby” option. TPM has reached out to Facebook for more information and will update when we receive a response.
Google already offers a competing location-based social app called Google Latitude, which launched in 2009.
